As the new policy debate devoted to the MISP package (see EUROPE 13862/2) approaches, bringing together EU finance ministers in Luxembourg on Friday 12 June, the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU is continuing its consultations in order to bring the positions of the EU27 closer together on two key aspects of the reform: the extent of the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) direct supervisory powers and the architecture of its governance.
According to a working document obtained by Agence Europe, “broad support” is emerging in favour of strengthening European supervision, but EU Member States nonetheless remain divided on how to define the “significant” nature of the market infrastructures concerned. In particular, Nicosia is seeking to clarify whether this assessment should be based solely on quantitative criteria, such as size or market share, or whether it should also take account of membership of a financial group.
Moreover, the rotating Presidency of the EU Council stresses that in previous discussions, a “large majority” of Member States came out in favour of direct supervision by ESMA only in relation to crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) that are deemed significant, rather than supervision of the sector as a whole, as the European Commission had initially proposed. Ministers are therefore being invited to specify the criteria that would make it possible to identify players of sufficient importance at European Union level.
On the governance side, Nicosia notes the existence of “sufficient consensus” to move forward with the creation of an executive board within ESMA. Several Member States are nevertheless calling for a rebalancing in favour of national competent authorities, notably through a stronger role for the Board of Supervisors and closer involvement of national supervisors in the day-to-day supervision of entities placed under the European authority’s direct control.
See the working document of the Cyprus Presidency: https://aeur.eu/f/m7x (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)